Jets Couldn't Match Moore's Helicopter

DAVIE — To hear Nat Moore tell it, one thing made him hold onto that pass from Dan Marino 25 years ago on the Dolphins' first trip to the Meadowlands.

Without it, Moore's famed Helicopter Catch on Nov. 4, 1984, never would have been possible.

That thing was fear.

Not of losing or failure or any of those things.

Fear of Don Shula.

"The series before, I caught a similar ball and on the way down I hit an elbow on the ground," Moore recalls.

"Ball pops out and Coach Shula was like, 'You know what, we would have been better off if you didn't catch the ball! At least we could have punted it away!' "

So when Marino came back to his trusty slot receiver with another bullet at the Jets' 5-yard-line, Moore wasn't about to let go.

Even as he got spun through the air in a full horizontal 360 by Jets defenders Kenny Schroy (who hit Moore low) and Kirk Springs (who hit him high), Moore was determined.

"In my mind, when I caught that football, I'm trying to score, I'm trying to atone," Moore says. "I'm trying to go up and over and I get hit and I'm spinning. The only thing I was thinking was, 'Whatever you do, don't let this football go because you've got to see Shula again.' He has that kind of impact on you."

Moore, 58, ended his 13-year NFL career (all with the Dolphins) with 510 career receptions for 7,546 yards and 74 touchdowns. Yet it's the Helicopter Catch everybody wants to hear about.

"I think the key is when you're playing in New York, there are a lot of cameras and a lot of media," Moore says. "If you play well there, you're known. Granted, I'm known for getting the heck knocked out of me, but it's still great to be remembered."